如果我回到最初，我有两个哥哥，他们经常在家踢足球。一个比我大六岁，另一个比我大一岁，尽管我一直想参与其中，但我因为我太小了，所以我经常被远离，所以一开始我不能真正发挥我想要的那么多。从大约两三岁开始，我就非常渴望参与其中并去公园和他们一起玩，所以我认为这就是它的来源。 当我被允许和他们一起比赛时，我是最年轻的球员，所以我被迫进入球门，每天都有更大的小伙子把球钉在我身上。公平地说，我很喜欢它，所以我非常感谢我的兄弟们当时允许我参与其中。这也一定帮助我快速成长，从年轻的时候就开始对你进行更严厉的打击，并且很多人都进去了，但多年来我开始越来越擅长处理这个问题。奇怪的是，从那以后我一直和比我年龄大的球员一起踢球，即使当我第一次去卡莱尔联队的中心时也是如此。表现非常出色，大多数周我的表现都比我的年龄高出两岁。

I grew up in Whitehaven, in Cumbria, and you could say that, luckily, there wasn’t much going on outside of hobbies for the youngsters. And because I had football, I just got obsessed with it and getting better at it and seeing improvements. I still remember trying to improve on crosses and getting my mum and dad to throw balls for me on the cul-de-sac at home and I think I was obsessed with it in a way. I started playing for a club called Whitehaven Miners where I was actually an outfield player. At the time, I didn’t want to be a goalkeeper as I thought I was a striker scoring the goals!I was even an outfield player when I went to Carlisle right up until I was about 11, but despite that, when I came home I’d still go in nets when playing with my brothers because I was the youngest lad so I had to do it. So I’d class myself as a decent outfield player and I can remember we had a game down at Blackpool when the goalie had to pull out sick so I said I’d go in goal and I actually did well, I think I saved two penalties. And then at training, I’d go with the goalies on a Tuesday and the outfield players on a Thursday and they actually offered me a contract as either an outfield player or in goal.

But it got to the stage where I just loved diving in the mud and doing it, so I took a leap of faith and went with being a goalkeeper. I still remember making mistake after mistake some weeks, but the way I looked at it was that the only way you learn from it is to keep putting yourself in those scenarios. A lot of kids get upset when they make mistakes, but I’d always concentrate on the saves that I’d made, so if I’d made three mistakes and made four saves, I’d look at those positives rather than the negatives and I think that’s what made me enjoy it. I always used to say to myself, if I’ve made that mistake, I won’t let it happen again. And if you’ve made them all, you can cut them out and the best time to do it is when you’re young.At that time, the only club I wanted to play for was Carlisle because that was the only club around me and I thought it was impossible to get picked up by any other clubs and I had this dream of playing in goal for Carlisle. So when they offered me a six-year contract, I thought that was a no-brainer and at that time it was still all fun. I knew things were starting to get more serious when I was invited down to train on the pitch before a first-team game with Dave Timmins when I was about eleven and a half.

I was always had a confidence about me from a young age, I would get to train with the first-team goalies when I was 12, so I’d get the train from Whitehaven up to Carlisle on my own and go on the pitch and take it in my stride. I still remember that stood me in good stead for when I went out with my own age group on a Sunday morning.